Royal and Republican Sovereignty in Early Modern Europe
Subtitle: Essays in Memory of Ragnhild Hatton
Contributors: Robert Oresko (Editor); G. C. Gibbs (Editor); H. M. Scott (Editor)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: February 28, 1997
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 691
ISBN-13: 9780521419109
Subjects: Constitution: government & the state; European history: c 1500 to c 1750; c 1700 to c 1800; c 1800 to c 1900; History & Theory - General; Political History; Politics and government; Political Science; History - General History; Modern - 18th Century; History: World; Europe; Europe - General; Modern - 17th Century; Europe--Politics and government; History / Europe / General; Bibliography; Hatton, Ragnhild Marie
First sentence: 'All states and all dominions which have ruled or now rule over men have been and still are either republics or principalities.'
Description: This substantial collection of specially commissioned chapters addresses the theme of sovereignty and the sources and variety of political power in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe, from Russia to Spain and from the Italian peninsula to the Dutch Republic.

A unifying theme, taken up in a substantial editorial introduction, is the determination to move away from cliches such as 'the rise of the modern state'. Instead, emphasis is placed upon the composite nature of early modern political structures and upon the significant number of bodies and individuals who were recognised as possessing, or who exercised, sovereignty.

One particularly notable and novel feature is the attention paid to the potential of visual material for this subject: many of the chapters are accompanied by striking and often little-known illustrations. Topics are as diverse as international relations and the control of foreign policy, the cultural policies and political ambitions of representational monarchy, urban developments, and the personalities of those who exercised authority.

These diverse themes were all illuminated by the writings of Professor Ragnhild Hatton (1913-95), to whose memory this collection is dedicated.